First couple hours of cooking a butt

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First time using my wsm,first time ever smoking any thing. I have had the butt on since 7:30 am and my temp throught the top started at 280, so i adjusted the vents to 50% open droped to 270, adjusted to 25% 30 mins later still between 260-270, I have used 3 thermometers all read within 5 degrees. Should I worry about running in those temps in the first couple hours? Should I wait for another couple hours and let the WSM do its thing or should I keep adjusting to try to get under 250. Any thoughts would be appreicated.
 
Butts are very forgiving. 260-270 isn't gonna affect the outcome one way or the other. I generally do butts at 325. The meat just gets done faster...no loss in smokiness or tenderness or juiciness.

If you're worried and you have a probe or a Thermapen, foil your meat at 165. Then continue to cook till it reaches 190 or so. Re-wrap with another layer of foil (to prevent leaks dripping out of the probe holes) and wrap in a fluffy towel--beach or bath. Put in the microwave (don't turn it on) or the oven or a cooler and let rest for as long as you like but longer than half an hour. I've had them stay hot...piping hot...for six hour or more.

Pull the pork and add the juices that have accumulated in the foil back to the meat. Some advocate chilling and dumping the fat but I think the small amount of residual fat in the foil (most will melt and drip off during the run up to 165) should be added back too. It only accentuates flavour and juiciness.
 
thanks for the info, It has been holding at at 265. So on a butt your able to cook at higher temps. Say if I run around 280 or so the butt might not take all day to hit the 190? What point in the smoke should I start to check the internal temp and baste the meat?5hrs or so?
 
I never baste butts...or anything else, for that matter, although I don't do ribs very often and they can use basting or so I'm told. But every time you open the pit, the overall cooking time goes up at least 15 minutes or more depending on how long you keep it open.

And cooking at 325 I usually have an average size butt done in five to six hours.

If you don't have a probe, go right down to your local walmart and cough up $14.00 for a pyrex digital thermometer with the remote probe...wires...and the digital readout. They're cheap and they are reliable. Get two. Stick one in a half potato and put it on the top grill. Don't worry about running the wire under the lid. That's OK. This will give you are real accurate grill level temp.

Stick the other one in the heart of the butt. When it reaches 165, foil the meat, and re-insert the probe through the foil. Take the meat to 190 or so and you're done.
 
Michael,

Is it a bone in butt? If so, I insert the probe when the bone starts to "show".

You may need to insert the probe in a few different places....butts can give different internal readings because of the many types of muscle mass that are connected. You are fine cooking at 265 lid temps.

If the smoker wants to "settle" there, and if there is no reason to extend the cook, then I'd leave it alone.

My personal preference is not to foil a butt. I would only foil if I needed to speed up the cook. I don't baste, mop, or even spray the butt once it's on.

I pull my butts off when the bone feels lose to a tug and about ready to break in half when lifted. The finishing temp could be at 185 or could be over 200 (rarely though). Cooking a butt to a specific temp can overcook it IMO thus leaving it dry, and having a "cottony" taste.
 
craig, yes this is a bone in butt.The bone is just barely sticking out the side.My lid temp has held steady in the 260s, I just checked the internal temp and it is 167. It has been on for 6 hours and I have a digital thermometer in the meat, and will monitor to try to reach in the upper 180s to 190 hopelly with in the next couple hours. thanks for the help
 
It may be at it's plateau. Butts often stay at or near a certain temp usually in the 160's for a while. It will eventually break the plateau and slowly climb.

If you are in a rush, you can foil to speed the butt up. It's not the best way, but it won't hurt it either.
 
Not much in a rush its only 2:30 here. I'll give it till 4 and it the temp has not rose much I might do the tin foil idea. This might sound kinda of like a dumb question, does it matter which side of the tin you face to the fire?(shiny or dull side) thanks for your help
 
Shiny or dull....doesn't matter. Good luck.

Ps- you might open the vents some and ramp up the temps to like 275-300 (or even higher if you've got enough fuel left) at the lid.
 
I was able to reach 190 without foil, so it took 10 hours for 6 pound roast, well worth the wait, bone pulled right out of the meat, let the roast sit in foil for 30 mins meat was so tender you could scape it with one fork. Lessons learned that you need alot of patience for long smoking, well worth the price of the WSM Held 260 for 10 hours using royal oka lump charcoal, Thanks again for your help
 
Just a small reminder...You can cook two or three or 6 butts in your WSM in that 10 hours, and it freezes well (really, really well if you vacuum pack too), so unless you are practicing your fire control skills, I would always cook more than you are planning on using immediately.

One of the other things I do, is to offer my close neighbors the chance to add a butt or two for themselves, they pay for their meat and buy the charcoal for mine
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, what a great deal that is; all round!

I rarely do less than four or five butts this way and that gives us two or three and the neighbors one or two butts cooked at the end of a day.

The other thing I do once every couple of months, is to clear out the freezer, I have it marked every 8 weekends on a calendar in the kitchen. I always date and label everything that goes in, so I can see quickly if things are over 2 months old, I donate to our local firehouses a pack of pulled pork, there are 5 firehouses on my drives to work or the stores, and I rotate which one gets the package, if I have more than one package I drop them at more than one firehouse. The firemen have yet to turn down a vacuum package of pulled pork in sauce. They sure appear to relish the drop off early in the day, I will mostly drop packages off about 7:50 AM this gives them plenty of time to choose which meal in the day they are going to use it for, or if they are going to keep it frozen and have it the next day.
 
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